E. M. Forster's A Passage to India: Book Analysis

E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India" deals directly with the position of Britain as the ruler of India and its affect on personal relationships. One of these relationships is between the elderly British woman Mrs. Moore and her son Ronnie. Britain rule changes the social balance of India and, like many other relationships, causes Mrs. Moore and Ronnie to lose connection.

Mrs. Moore is a very respectful, kind, and open woman. She demonstrates these qualities when she takes off her shoes in the mosque and when she befriends Doctor Aziz. Mrs. Moore represents the genuinely good people in society. She holds an air of innocence when witnessing prejudice against the Indian people. She judges people based on merit, not race. Mrs. Moore is motivated by her passion for life, her internal goodness, and her desire to expand her worldview. Ronnie, on the other hand, is very unlike his mother. He is a strict follower of the rules set by his government and his society. He is also very emotionally detached, as he so demonstrates through his attitude toward Adela. Ronnie represents the viewpoints of the majority of the English during the time of Imperialism. He finds the Indians inferior to himself and acts towards them accordingly. Ronnie is motivated by his need to uphold his image and position in society.

Because of Britain's control over India, Ronnie is able to work as a magistrate there. This alters his relationship with his mother. Firstly, Mrs. Moore is forced to travel a great distance just to see her son. When she does visit Ronnie, she is faced with the disappointment of his unwillingness to show her the "real India". Oppositely, Ronnie is upset and even embarrassed for his mother when he finds her socializing with the Indian people. Neither mother nor son understand each other's behavior. The dynamic between the two changes greatly. Consequently, Mrs. Moore consults Adela and tells her to second guess marrying her son. Ronnie, fearing his mother may openly...

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Forster does much more in his book...than simply deride the intolerance of a few accidental individuals. He carefully shows how this intolerance results from the unequal power relationship between English and Indians, from the imperialistic relationship itself... The process is best shown in the book in the case of Ronny, who has only recently come out from England to be City Magistrate of Chandrapore.
Ronny was at first friendly towards the Indians, but he soon found that his position prevented such friendship. Shortly after his arrival he invited the lawyer Mahmoud All to have a smoke with him, only...

... politics or religion.[3]
Stylistics also attempts to establish principles capable of explaining the particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language, such as socialisation, the production and reception of meaning, critical discourse analysis and literary criticism.
Other features of stylistics include the use of dialogue, including regional accents and people’s dialects, descriptive language, the use of grammar, such as the active voice or passive voice, the distribution of sentence lengths, the use of particular language registers, etc. In addition, stylistics is a distinctive term that may be used to determine the connections between the form and effects within a particular variety of language. Therefore, stylistics looks at what is ‘going on’ within the language; what the linguistic associations are that the style of language reveals.
Contents [hide] * 1 Early twentieth century * 2 Late twentieth century * 3 Literary stylistics * 3.1 Poetry * 3.2 Implicature * 3.3 Tense * 3.4 The point of poetry * 4 See also * 5 Notes * 6 References and related reading * 7 External links |
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[edit]Early twentieth century
The analysis of literary style goes back to Classical rhetoric, but modern stylistics has its roots in Russian Formalism,[4] and the related Prague School, in the early twentieth century.
In 1909, Charles...

...The reflection of fear and hope problem in
is a book published in 1924 by E.M Forster which portrays the colonized India under the rule of Britain and further explores the problem whether it’s possible that friendship can be established regardless of the separation of religions and social status. The question deals with the emotion of fear and hope and also the roles they play in the novel. Both of the two emotions here not merely refer to the feelings but also, they reflect the different personal characters and the problems concerned with the social status and cultural background. In this book, fear and hope are conveyed in ways of the expression of the setting and opening passage, detailed description and symbolism. This essay is going to talk about the application and representation of fear and hope, also their roles of deepening the theme of the book..
In >, the opening passage of each chapter lays the foundation for the emotion. Fear and hope are played up via the description of colors and outer environment. Chapter one is very beginning and in consideration of the fact that the readers have no knowledge about text itself, the narrator applies the methods of setting off to let the basic emotion stand out. In the sentences: “There are no bathing steps on the river front, as the Ganges happens not to be holy here”, “In the bazaars there is no painting and scarcely any carving.”,...

...Forster's novel A Passage to India portrays a colonial India under British rule, before its liberation. For convenience's sake, Western civilization has created an Other as counterpart to itself, and a set of characteristics to go with it. An "us versus them" attitude is exemplified in Forster's representation of The Other. Separation of the British and the Indian exists along cultural lines, specifically religious/spiritual differences. Savage or ungodly cultures were to be assimilated into or at the least governed by Christians, and converted. The separation between the English and the Indian occurs when the Christian assumes the Indians are an ungodly people, in need of spiritual salvation, a race below their own, and entirely unlike them. This was demonstrated historically by the dominance of supposedly inferior races by the Christians (English). Forster's Indians have a seemingly rugged outward appearance. They are a godless people insomuchas they do not believe in the Christian GOD, even though there are two religions, Hinduism and Muslimism, which thrive in India. This division of India's religions, as opposed to England's presumably unifying religion, separates England from India even moreso. Because the Indians do not believe in the Christian GOD, they are unrecognized as spiritual. Religion shapes, if not embodies characterization. The British are...

...Meaning and Muddle in the Marabar Caves: A Look at E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India
In E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India, the Marabar Caves occupy an important part of the plot. The purpose of this deserves exploration considering Forster entitles the entire second part of his novel to them. Are these caves symbolic of an exploration into one’s own subconscious? Could they be a physical representation of freedom from societal constraint? Perhaps they are meant to embody the enigma that India and the East present to the West? An exploration of these possibilities hopefully shall reveal which meaning, if not all of them, Forster intended the Marabar Caves to possess.
On a metaphysical level, the Caves can be seen as a representation of the subconscious. By entering the caves one penetrates the dark, cavernous realm of one’s own psyche. Several characters experience a revelation within their walls. Mrs. Moore’s revelation is that of immense hopelessness. Her experience in the cave creates a sense of chaos and the sense that despite what is said or known in the world, it is all essentially meaningless. The echo she hears reinforces this revelation to her. The scary resounding “boum” reduces every individual sound or voice to a continuous and indistinct noise (Forster 163). She meditates that the sound, “had managed to murmur 'Pathos, piety, courage-they exist, but are...

...A Passage to India, written by E. M. Forster in 1924, is a novel exploring the widespread and uncontrolled tension and prejudice that existed in India in the 1920s. This tension was caused by animosity between the native Indians and the British officials who were ruling India at the time - in this novel, Dr. Aziz and the City Magistrate. Most of the conflict takes place between Dr. Aziz and the City Magistrate’s family and friends, who were visiting India at the time. Forster describes in detail what one realistic example of this conflict may have looked like: the question of what really happened in the Marabar Caves between an Englishwoman, Miss Adela Quested, and an Indian man, Dr. Aziz. Forster has written a compelling and engaging story that mostly accurately describes the racial tension that developed in India during British colonial rule.
The author, E. M. Forster, was British, and he often wrote about two main subjects: class difference and hypocrisy. These two themes appear in many of his books, including A Passage to India. Class difference is illustrated mostly in the constant arrogance of the British, who felt greatly superior to the Indians. Hypocrisy is also an issue in the book closer to the end, when Dr. Aziz feels that his friend, Fielding, betrayed him...

...A Passage To India Quotes
“They all become exactly the same, not worse, not better. I give any Englishman two years, be he Turton or Burton. It is only the difference of a letter. And I give any English woman six months. All are exactly alike." (Ch. 2)
"Conversation and billiards stopped, faces stiffened. It was the Anthem of the Army of Occupation. It reminded every member of the club that he or she was British and in exile. It produced a little sentiment and a useful accession of will-power." (Ch. 3 – response of the British when the national anthem is played).
"I want to see the real India." (Ch. 3 – Adela)
"Here we are, and we're going to stop, and the country's got to put up with us, gods or no gods." (Ch. 6 – Ronny’s remarks about the presence of the British in India).
"he did not realize that 'white' has no more to do with a colour than 'God save the King' with a god, and that it is the height of impropriety to consider what it does connote." (Ch. 7)
"A mystery is only a high sounding term for a muddle. No advantage in stirring it up, in either case. Aziz and I know well that India is a muddle." (Ch. 7 – Fielding: Mystery &amp; Muddle)
"I have never known anything but disaster result when English people and Indians attempt to be intimate socially." (Ch. 17 – Mr. Turton's views on relations between the English and the Indians).
"The buildings of Venice, like the mountains of...

...﻿A PASSAGE TO INDIA
Introduction:
Forster is a distinguished novelist both in modern English and world literature history. After the author's two visits to India, the great novel A Passage to India (1924) was produced; it is a novel by E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. In a word, it is a novel of cultural, social, psychological, and religious conflict arising mainly from clashes between India's native population and British imperialist occupiers. Altogether there are certain parts in this article highlighting on the author's philosophy, the imperialism, racialism and colonization in A Passage to India from the perspective of symbolism.
The Use of Symbolism in A Passage to India:
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. E.M. Forster's A Passage to India is painted with the colour of a wide range of symbols. They include-
1. The Marabar Caves
a. The Reverberation of the Cave
b. The Echo Representing a Hindu Resonance
2. The Image of the Green Bird
3. The Wasp Symbol
4. Social Events: Parties, Picnics, and Celebrations
5. Mosque, Cave, Temple, and Weather
6. Nothing as a Metaphor...